A Graduation Gift

Jill, with her towering fury, stood up angrily and pushed the dining chair back. She went on with the heated argument with Rufus. She was shouting mean words towards him like a shrew.

"That's enough!"

Horace slammed his heavy hands down the table. His roar-like voice made Cassandra jerk.

"Jill! I'm warning you. Rufus is my son and a member of the Tang family. If you continue on humiliating him, I will definitely drive you out of this house! Then we'll see who will be no longer part of this family!"

Jill's pale face quivered with embarrassment. She knew for sure that he meant what he had just said. It was for real and not a threat as Horace bristled with anger. She deemed it wise to just stop and take her seat, or else she would be an outcast in no time.

Her retreat, however, didn't mean that she had admitted defeat. She glared at Rufus silently and sat back in her seat with a sinister plan of revenge running on the back of her mind.

A servant hurried towards Rufus and cleansed his wounds with some disinfectant and wrapped it neatly with white gauze. After that, he turned towards Horace and bent over to whisper something in his ear, "Mr. Tong called and said he would come over because he had something urgent to discuss with you. He also added that he would come personally to check on Mr. Luo's injuries."

Upon hearing the news that Jenks was coming, he turned to the servant and ordered, "Tell the chef that Jenks is coming. I have oriented him about his favorite dishes last time. Make sure he cooks something he likes."

The servant nodded. Cold sweats were popping out of his forehead.

Horace was naturally strict at ordinary days, but it was very rare to see him so upset. He was so infuriated that the heavy and raspy yell he had made earlier veiled a mask of fear to everyone at the house.

Everyone knew well that the reasons for it all were Jill and Rufus, but no one dared to point it out. The fear of Horace weakened the strength out of them.

Jill had been difficult to get along with. Over the years, she had been peevish and grew fond of criticizing and finding faults with the servants' work for no reason whatsoever. Every servant was afraid of her, but they were like a dumb man eating the bitter herb - suffering in silence.

However, Jill was a great pretender. She always wore a smile in front of guests as if everything was fine with her. Especially when Horace was around, she would transform into an elegant, sophisticated, well-mannered woman and act like everything was perfect and orderly fine.

Nonetheless, misunderstandings had habituated the household recently. It started the moment Rufus moved in together with the Tang family.

Ever since Horace learned about Rufus's existence, he had done everything possible for Rufus to be accepted to the family.

Rufus was his biological son, and he owed Rufus's mother a lot. His conscience smote him for not providing and taking care of them in the past.

When all his plans for Rufus were set, he pulled all the courage he had to tell Jill about his son from another woman. Jill was so mad, but Horace was confused if her madness was genuine or not.

made up his mind and it remained unchanged. He brought Rufus to live with them and appointed him

Hellen Luo. He had sworn to marry her despite all the odds, but fate

nurtured together brought forth a blessing. She gave birth to Rufus, the testimony of Horace's unfulfilled promise

grew up and lived up to his father's expectations. The Tang

the once-famous Xie family she originally belonged to had gone to pot for years. She had lost their support and

unruly and not as steady as Rufus.

wine glass and blamed Jill for her bad taste in choosing cheap wine glasses. He emphasized that the wine glasses she chose were

show her some respect and call her 'mother'. As the argument

wouldn't listen to anyone. Rufus's injury made Horace's heart ache. Lionel swallowed back the words that were already on the tip of his tongue.

when she saw that Lionel turned a blind eye to her.

family. She was only worried about Rufus's wound. She grabbed hold of his hand dressed with gauze while tears were falling

very painful. Let me blow on it. When I was a child, I fell down and scraped my

stared at her features which resembled Cassandra's. His heart was shaken.

was holding his hand and comforting him now, the pain wouldn't trouble

Lionel. They had to pretend to be

and responded gently to Cloris, "I'm fine. Don't worry. Let's

end of the table with a calmer expression on his face. Jill sat on the other end, while Lionel and Cassandra were still standing.

holding Rufus's hand. Her

but her ears were attentive that she could still

clearly obvious, and Rufus didn't refuse her show of

would gently blow on her wound when she got hurt, Cassandra's nose

her memory of the

was where her mother and the nurse lived. Her wet nurse was a kind, old lady. She granted Cassandra whatever she asked for and spoiled her

could spend her childhood with them. She wasn't able to live with the Qin family until she attended junior high school.

and the many rules of the Qin

was her

treated her and Cloris differently. She dared not ask because she was afraid that

parents loved Cloris more, how should she

her parents focused on Cloris because she was younger. So she should be so understanding and humour her little

to give Rufus up to Cloris one day too?